The Narrabri Eagles Australian rules football club will run an AFL Nines competition from mid next month until early October and the club is excited to get its players back on the field.
The competition will get underway at the Eagles’ Nest, Leitch Oval, on Monday, September 14, and will wrap up on Friday, October 2.
At this stage it is expected to run each Monday and Friday night across the three weeks, with teams playing one half-an-hour game (15-minute halves) each night.
The club is expecting to have a minimum of six teams based on current interest and is preparing for as many as 10.
Twelve players per team is the ideal number, but teams can have as many players as they choose and teams are able to choose their own team names.
The Narrabri Eagles did not enter a team in the 2020 AFLNW competition due to health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The club has also been in a rebuilding phase for the past two years and is always keen to welcome new players to the group.
President Tom Carberry said that the nines competition would help the club prepare for 2021 and that it would also provide a fun and well-needed social sporting environment for the Narrabri community.
“Depending on how many teams we get we plan on running it two nights a week for the three weeks on Monday and Friday evenings,” Carberry said.
“We just thought this was a great opportunity to showcase AFL considering that there is no senior league, union or touch comps on at the moment.
“There’s no age limit but it’s probably best for people from 14-years-old and upward.
“AFL Nines is a mixed comp so this is a great chance to get lots of women down there playing as well.
“We’ve had between 25 and 30 punters down there every week for training so there’s a lot of interest already which is great.
“The game is really easy to pick up and it’s non-contact so it’s friendly for everybody.
“It’s been around for a few years now but we’ve never had an opportunity to hold it with Narrabri touch footy being as big as it is, lots of people are involved in that and if we’d started up a nines comp then I don’t think we’d have got the interest.
“But now’s the time before cricket starts and hopefully we can get it up and running every year.
“One of the best parts of the nines comp will be getting some more sport up and running in Narrabri, for the past months a lot of people have been sitting around with nothing to do.
“This will be a good excuse for everyone to get out and run around.
“The club is very excited for this, it’s part of our rebuilding process, to try and get some more players in the team.”
AFL Nines is the AFL’s social version of the game. It is a fast, free-flowing game that involves nine players on each team playing on a smaller field.
Best of all, it’s basically touch football with no tackling or bumping, making it suitable for people of any age or skill level, a non-contact version of the game which requires players to implement a touch in place of a tackle.
AFL Nines enables people of all ages and ability levels to participate in male, female or mixed competitions that fit around their busy lives and provide a social and fitness outlet.
The game is played between two teams of nine with interchange players. The field has a recommended length of 100 metres (which can be modified depending on the age and ability level of participants) and is divided into three zones: a mid zone and two scoring zones.
A mark is awarded irrespective of the distance the ball has travelled and if the ball hits the ground it is an automatic turnover.
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